Nagoya, Aichi, Japan｜Ryoan

Wonderful find! There’s a reason it has a 4.5 star average and been here for 21 years! A few things to know: cash only. No English menu, but he said he has plans to make it. Google translate will help you with most of the menu, although he does change the seasonal side once a week and hand-writes it, so google will have a hard time with that one. He also probably won’t be able to continue to translate that one every week. He knows a little bit of English and does his best to explain the menu if you ask for help. But please be patient. He gets very busy and is a one-man operation. Allow for at least an hour to eat here. Lunch is course only ranging from 1500 yen to 3000 yen. Includes a drink, salad with small cup of hot soup, main pasta and desert. I chose ice-tea and paid an extra 50 yen to “super size” it. I was pleasantly surprised to be served a huge glass of ice with a fresh pot of hot tea using real leaves to seep it! I think I had earl grey. Wow that was a treat. Perfect amount of ice to tea ratio. See the menu pics for all the options. I had the Alpha course and chose to pay a little extra for a bigger salad and the ice tea. The salad was huge! I probably should have stuck with the normal size. He makes an original non-dressing salad that is the only option for the A set, which next time I’ll probably pay the extra to get the option to choose amongst all the other salads. It was a good experience to have eaten it, and I would recommend it, but it really is a no-dressing salad. The taste will come from the various slightly pickled vegetables. I’m sure it is super healthy. Depending on the pasta you choose there might be a small up-charge of 100-350 yen. I had the fresh shrimp with Uni paste sauce so was one of the more expensive pastas on the menu. My final bill was 1,950 which might normally be a little in the expensive side for lunch, but it was more than worth it. I had 5 huge shrimps that were plump and juicy! Pasta was the perfect Aldente and deceivingly more than it looked when brought in the serving dish. I chose the chestnut gelato for desert. Great way to end it. Owner is friendly and will chat with you if you want to. Although I don’t know if I’ll be in this area again, I would certainly stop here again for lunch or dinner to enjoy this great, authentic Italian restaurant.

Nice atmosphere, very fast service and most of all delicious pasta. Highly recommended to visit this place if you like Italian pasta.

Anyway, it was delicious! I was looking for this restaurant when I asked, “Pasta for dinner?” A drink that I would never normally order. I thought it was an unusual menu and it was just an ordinary tomato juice, but I was impressed by the unexpected taste. A salad that not only tastes great but also looks great! I have never been so excited about a salad (lol) Thanks to you, I felt like I had my birthday and Christmas a little early. As expected, the pasta and risotto were even more delicious than I expected, and I really enjoyed the master's explanations and stories. It seems that he is running the business by himself, but I was lucky that he happened to be free so I was able to enjoy his story.